This present invention relates to a system of providing pay-per-view services in a subscriber television system and, more specifically, to providing interstitial video pay-per-view services and pay-per-view referrals in subscriber television systems.
The current methods of providing Pay-Per-View (PPV) services include a PPV program channel and a couple of separate event channels for showing the PPV events. The PPV program channel provides advertising of future PPV events, video previews, and can include a PPV program guide that lists the PPV programs, the show times of the programs, and a description of each program. A PPV event (xe2x80x9cMovie Axe2x80x9d at 6:00 PM) is a specific showing of a PPV program (xe2x80x9cMovie Axe2x80x9d). The PPV events are shown on the event channels; i.e., the subscriber tunes to a separate event channel to watch a purchased PPV event. Subscribers purchase a PPV event from the PPV program channel or, in some systems, from the event channel where the PPV event will be shown. A PPV event is transmitted to a Home Communications Terminal (HCT) at a subscriber location in the event channel signal during the show time of the PPV event. Only a subscriber that has purchased the PPV event can view it. Other subscribers will see a scrambled signal if they tune to the event channel associated with the PPV event. If a subscriber tunes to the wrong channel after purchasing a PPV event, the subscriber will miss the PPV event until the subscriber tunes to the correct channel.
The digitizing of broadband signals now allows a subscriber television system to offer thousands of channels, of which hundreds can be PPV channels. PPV channels produce revenue for a subscriber television system. To maintain subscriber satisfaction and revenue, there is need for the PPV channels and PPV guide to respond to subscriber input with a minimum of delay. The PPV event data must be retrieved as it is used and may change at any time. With hundreds of PPV channels, the PPV event database becomes too large to be stored in most HCTs, must be split into multiple files to avoid exceeding bandwidth-related file size limitations, and requires an efficient sort mechanism to minimize delays in accessing the information.
Because a subscriber has thousands of channels to choose from, the operators of subscriber television systems are increasingly interested in using advertising to keep a subscriber""s attention on the PPV channel events when the subscriber is not watching a PPV event. If a subscriber""s attention drifts, the subscriber may select something else to watch and not preview and purchase PPV events. In addition to advertising on the PPV program channel, advertising is currently also done on the event channels. The advertising on an event channel can include video, typically. During the showing of a PPV event on an event channel, for subscribers not purchasing the PPV event, text only advertising or tuning information (i.e. Tune to Channel 50 for xe2x80x9cMovie Axe2x80x9d show times) is displayed as a text barker. The barker is transmitted in the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) associated with the event channel. The size of the VBI limits the information to text only.
Current methods of advertising on PPV systems include an advertising window that opens an hour before the start of a PPV event and closes 15 minutes after the start of the PPV event. There can be long periods, even hours, after the close of one advertising window before the opening of the advertising window for the next PPV event. During this time a static text barker is often displayed. The gap between advertising windows helps to minimize subscriber confusion associated with advertising xe2x80x9cMovie Bxe2x80x9d during xe2x80x9cMovie Axe2x80x9d and a subscriber trying to buy xe2x80x9cMovie Axe2x80x9d and actually purchasing xe2x80x9cMovie Bxe2x80x9d. In addition, after a PPV event is no longer available for purchase, current PPV system methods indicate to the subscriber that the next showing of the PPV event will be immediately following the current showing of the PPV event or refer the subscriber to a program guide for the next showing of the PPV event.
Thus, there is a need for a PPV system in which the Pay-Per-View service is easy for a subscriber to use, in which a subscriber that does not purchase a PPV event can be shown advertising with video, in which advertising can be shown between advertising windows in a way that does not cause subscriber confusion, and in which the required PPV service and event information is transmitted to the HCT efficiently in order to minimize the amount of information that must be transmitted over the network, the memory required for storage in the HCT, and the amount of time required to access the information from the network by the HCT. In addition, there is a need for a PPV system that directs a subscriber to the next showing of the PPV event regardless of the time or channel associated with the next showing.